This week, a bright day in the darkness that is Kansas

Governor Sam Brownback is a teabagger, a right wing radical.  He and his policies have left Kansas in a big smoking crater politically and economically.  It is unlikely he will ever hold public office after his current term expires, because that is the epic scale of his failure.

Brownback, not laughing now

Trickle down economics does not work.  The only thing it does, the only thing it EVER has done, is to be redistributive, taking money from the poor and middle classes and then giving it to the 1%.  It explodes the wealth and income gap enormously.  And it creates massive debt and deficits for the state or nation that enacts it.  Greed, not greatness is the driving motivation.

Laffer, not laughing now

Earlier this week, the legislature in Kansas took a GENUINELY bi-partisan approach to governance when it repealed the failed tax policy of Brownback and Laffer.  Brownback promptly vetoed the repeal, and the House side of the Kansas Legislature then overturned the veto with a vote 1 over the required number.  Sadly the Senate, which is much much smaller, tried to do the same, but fell 3 votes short.

So for now the tax policies of Brownback stay, but it is likely there will be another attempt at repeal and it is expected the next try will be successful.  It is sufficient that they nearly succeeded in Kansas, and that they plan to try again.

The architect, so to speak, the designer of disaster, was one Arthur Laffer, who previously advised Ronald Reagan to implement trickle down economics which was a huge failure, is now abandoning the sinking ship that is Brownback and Kansas to promote the same tax policies with Trump's administration.  What Brownback and his Republican legislature put in effect was entirely on party lines, was nearly identical to what Trump is now planning to do with the cooperation of the Republican controlled Congress.

Let me outline some of the outcomes of the Reagan effort, which parallels the much earlier "Horse and Sparrow" debacle of the same tax plan in the 19th century.

"Reagan significantly increased public expenditures, primarily the Department of Defense, which rose (in constant 2000 dollars) from $267.1 billion in 1980 (4.9% of GDP and 22.7% of public expenditure) to $393.1 billion in 1988 (5.8% of GDP and 27.3% of public expenditure); most of those years military spending was about 6% of GDP, exceeding this number in 4 different years. All these numbers had not been seen since the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1973. In 1981, Reagan significantly reduced the maximum tax rate, which affected the highest income earners, and lowered the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 50%; in 1986 he further reduced the rate to 28%. The federal deficit under Reagan peaked at 6% of GDP in 1983, falling to 3.2% of GDP in 1987 and to 3.1% of GDP in his final budget. The inflation-adjusted rate of growth in federal spending fell from 4% under Jimmy Carter to 2.5% under Ronald Reagan; however, federal deficit as percent of GDP was up throughout the Reagan presidency from 2.7% at the end of (and throughout) the Carter administration. As a short-run strategy to reduce inflation and lower nominal interest rates, the U.S. borrowed both domestically and abroad to cover the Federal budget deficits, raising the national debt from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion.This led to the U.S. moving from the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation."

So to recap, Reaganomics caused a huge decline in federal revenue, and we became the world's largest debtor nation after being the world's largest creditor nation. The ONLY reason that things improved towards the end of the Reagan administration were the reversals of his tax cuts with ELEVEN tax increases. But NEVER have the 1% returned to an level of paying their fair share. The burden of making up the deficiencies from Reagan forwards has always fallen on those who earn less and have less financial resources than the wealthy, who benefit disproportionately from government.

From CBS News:

Meanwhile, following that initial tax cut, Reagan actually ended up raising taxes - eleven times. That's according to former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, a longtime Reagan friend who co-chaired President Obama's fiscal commission that last year offered a deficit reduction proposal.

Raising taxes, that is just what they are doing in Kansas, but only after significant harm. And that is what we have to look forward to from Rump and the Republians AGAIN.

And it's only Monday...how many more cock-ups will happen this week?

Because --Presidents' Day!

I rejoice in how much wit and art have responded to the toxic Trump threat

More significant fact, he not only did far worse, including worse than George H. W. Bush, Rump LIED about it after claiming the press was fake news

Interesting, given one of these two has recently compared the Russian scandal to being very like Watergate...

Distraction? No! An unravelling illegitimate presidency

I recently passed a few hours reading an old Tom Clancy novel  published 15 years ago, that focused on Russian intelligence services and politics. That novel, "Red Rabbit", mentioned early on the attempts by the Soviet Union and subsequent Communist Russians attempting to influence a d control the outcome of US elections.  Clancy also made reference to these same people trying to influence our politics through funding extremist and hyper-nationalist groups.  Clancy also expressed the assurance that US and allied intelligence services would successfully obstruct such efforts.

I would argue the intel community failed to prevent that happening but they may very well undo the Russian success that has been foisted on us.

While Clancy wrote fiction he did extensive research and had significant contacts in the intelligence communities.  Clancy was not making up those allegations which are well documented for decades to present.

We have seen this play out with Russian funding of French and Austrian far right extremist groups, and their candidates, like Marine Le Pen of the neo-nazi French National Front. Those same funding operatives from Russia met with disgraced General Mike Flynn and with Le Pen's counterpart in Austria, which Russia also funded.

The involvement of what is clearly successful Russian intervention, combined with the continuing successful verification of the MI-6 agent Steele's dossier that argues Rump is likely at least partially or more fully the puppet of Putin and the Russians through a combination of blackmail material and financial controls.

If, as I believe is plausible verging on probable, that Rump achieved office through a rigged, invalid election then he needs to go, and his entire administration with him.  That has to include the Vice President who is in office through the same tainted process.  I was amused to see on BBC's World News that Irish bookies are offering odds of 4 to 1 that Rump will be impeached, and 15 to 8 (nearly 2 to 1) that Rump will resign before his term is up.  So this expectation is not unique to me but apparently some people are venturing cash on it.

I would go further and argue that the only explanation that makes any sense for why Pence was supposedly kept in the dark about Mike Flynn and the Russians is the hope that Pence might appear clean enough to avoid being thrown out with Rump as information about how they got elected emerges.

That is so catastrophically far from being a trivial "distraction" is instead an unprecedented governmental crisis, a crisis even Tom Clancy in his day could not have constructed.  To paraphrase the famous words of Abe Lincoln, we must preserve government of the people, by the people, for the people, not government of Americans, by Russians, for Russian oligarchs and other fascists.

History Repeating: How treason President Nixon has a parrallel with Rump

When running against LBJ, tricky Dicky, the man who was clearly very much a crook despite his protestations, negotiated with OUR ENEMIES to prolong the Viet Nam War as a means of winning election.  LBJ could not reveal at the time that the US intel knew this from phone bugging without damaging further essential intel gathering.
So LBJ, who had been lol looking at a landslide election - a real landslide, not a fake 'YUGE' win like the one claimed by Rump or Dubya before him, just walked away.  Robert Kennedy could have easily defeated tricky Dicky but that option ended with his assassination. HHHumphrey, LBJ's Vice Prez, could not overcome crooked Nixon who later became infamous for his illegal dirty tricks, having to resign after Watergate.

Now we have Rump engaging in cheating and cyberwar to steal an election, this time with our enemy Russia, in multiple proxy wars like Crimea and Syria.

You have to be willfully ignorant to believe General Flynn would be gone were it not for a strategic patriotic leak revealing the treasonous conduct of Rump and Flynn attempting to undermine the policy and actions of the legitimate sitting president.

Rump and his cabal would have you believe this was not illegal.  He is wrong.  Rump would have you believe this was normal interaction; five calls and texts to the Russian ambassador is not normal, nor is the promise to undo sanctions for interfering in our elections.  Our intelligence agencies are clear that this was action to help Rump win, and it was clearly effective.

I would argue Rump like Nixon is both illegitimate because of how he came to power, and that Rump like Nixon is selling out the United States for personal power grabbing and financial gain.

THAT is both UN-American and Anti-American.

But at least it appears the Rump secrets will see the light of day sooner than was the case with disgraced tricky Dicky.

Let us hope that unlike the thousands of American deaths that resulted from Nicon's actions does not repeat with American deaths laid at Rump's door.

N Korea messes with weakling Trump

The president of the undesirables whom it pleases me to mock by calling him Rump, is facing a crisis that is approaching that of the Kennedy era Cuban Nuclear Missile Crisis.
Let me outline the similarities:
1.  Nukes are nukes, they are weapons of mass destruction, and that destruction is difficult to direct
or control, and is capable of expanding far beyond their target.
2.  As with Russia, China is a superpower subsidizing, supporting, and protecting the smaller proxy power.  To attack one is to engage both in war.
3.  Both proxy states, Cuba and N. Korea, are or were substantially dominated by powerful dictators.
4.  Any war, nuclear or otherwise, would have a near certainty of expanding into a global conflict/ WW III.
5.  Both proxy countries, Cuba and N. Korea, are targets for displaced former nationals, Cubans and S. Koreans. Family members of these groups would be or were directly and adversely affected by
escalating conflict.

So far their is no sense of respect for Rump, or intimidation on the part of N. Korea for his swagger; rather the timing of the missile test appears intended for maximum impact to challenge Rump as he hosted one of the other great opponents to N. Korea, a country facing a very real and more proximal threat by this test.  Japan NEEDS the protection of the USA and Korea just threatened that support.

I continue to be shocked and dismayed at the ignorance demonstrated by Rump supporters, ignorantly asserting we should not just attack N. Korea, but nuke them first.

These willfully ignorant and belligerent know-nothing's are clueless children, not informed adults.

Even if we were to find ourselves in a greater conflict with China that was short of a shooting war, we could and should expect devastating economic consequences on both a national and global scale.
Any serious student of history knows that economic conflicts are the single greatest catalysts for subsequent armed conflict.  If you did not know that, I suggest you address that gap in your understanding, including the tariff conflicts like the stamp act and the Boston Tea Party as leading to the American Revolution.

It's Friday Fun-Day! Join us in celebrating the failure to date of the Rump Muslim Ban with a good laugh at his expense!

Conned Servatives are attempting to drag the country, kicking and screaming, back into the 19th century

Or given Rump's behavior towards women, back into the caves we crawled out of to walk upright in the sunlight.

 

What Liz Warren and Coretta Scott King had to say about Jeff Sessions

The deplorable Jeff Sessions has been confirmed as Attorney General of the United States. He is actually a step worse than the most incompetent AGs of prior presidents, notably Dubya’s Alberto Gonzales who was so execrable as AG that he could not find even a patronage job from righties as an attorney after he left office. Sessions has taken more money from big oil than any other member of Congress; he is fully owned and operated by the fossil fuel industries. He is a bigot of the worst order, and a religious zealot of the worst extremism. Shame shame shame on the right. Shame on Rump; he is not president of the entire United States. He is further demonstrating he is the president only of special interests and the deplorable worst elements of the United States.

The pesky truth: the Statue of Liberty WAS originally a Muslim Woman

I"m fed up with the lie blindly and enthusiastically accepted by the right that credible, professional media has a secret agenda to lie to the general populous.  It is false. In point of fact, the only real "fake news" of any substance or quantity originates from the right, particularly the right wing propaganda machine.

There is a fact free, fact averse paranoia which is being promoted by "their" president, Rump, and his White House, most notably by press secretary Spicer and other spokes puppets that the main stream professional media are liars.  We see it in a wide range of major stories and also minor stories like the one about the origins of the Statue of Liberty origins, a topic featured on CBS news and USA Today among others.  The Statue of Liberty Originated as a Muslim Woman story is an excellent template to examine the right wing mdeia paranoia.

The reality resisted by the right, for example, in their anti-Muslim bigotry,is that the story is true and factually correct that the Statue of Liberty really was originally conceived and designed as a female Muslim figure, Libertas, (the Roman Goddess of Liberty) by the artist who created it, Bartholdi. 

Why pick a Roman goddess reconfigured as a Muslim woman in Egypt? Why not? A little history: the Romans conquered Egypt when Octavian /aka Augustus kicked out Marc Antony and Cleopatra was the last of the Ptolemeic dynasty put in place by the Macedonian Alexander the Great. (Cleopatra was actually ethnic Greek.) Trajan conquered the rest of the applicable territory to the canal a bit later.  And in the era of Bertholdi (a German from the Alsace Lorraine region of France) the French were fascinated with "orientalism" and neo-classic subjects in the works of artists like Gerome and Ingres as well as Bartholdi.  So the assumption that the Egypt of the mid 19th century, the time of the construction of the Suez Canal, was subject to rigid Islamic fundamentalism is false, as is the right wing notions of the Islamic version of Aniconism as it pertains to a Muslim woman being the image for a statue of Libertas/Liberty.

Aniconims is the prohibition of figural art, sometimes defined as only applying to human figures, sometimes applying to images of all forms of natural and supernatural subjects, both plant and animal, as well as figures such as angels and demons, etc.  The strongest examples of aniconism tend to occur in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  But that varies tremendously by geography and historic era.  There is in fact a rich tradition of figural art in Islam, both religious and secular forms.  But don't take my word for it, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has an excellent essay on it, here.  In my personal experience, which has included viewing a wide range of Islamic art featuring human beings, aniconism tends to be limited to religious contexts, such as inside mosques.  The assumption that all figurative art is prohibited in Islamic countries or by Sharia law is ridiculous, the kind of bigoted misinformation one finds on the right.

A little more history as context to the original statue that became the Statue of Liberty in New York City harbor, while Egypt at that time was a semi-autonomous part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, it was ruled by Mohammed Ali Pasha, a Muslim Albanian.  Egypt had a substantial presence of Albanian mercenaries.  But the real control of Egypt was by the French and English, who owned the debt for the building of the canal, and who held important seats in government that provided de facto control of the region involved in the Canal zone.

The original design was for a female figure holding aloft a torch, that would serve as a lighthouse at the mouth of the Suez Canal, back in the 19th century.  We only have the current statue of Liberty, or more correctly, and certainly ironically, "Liberty Enlightening the World", because the funding on the Suez Canal version fell through.  The title for the proposed but not completed Suez Canal version of Libertas, holding a torch just like the one held by the USA Statue of Liberty was very similar, "Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia".

This rubbish about the mainstream media is simply not true.  It relies on a mixture of propaganda from what has become a right wing propaganda machine, a concerted effort to misinform and dis-inform, and from willful intentional ignorance on the part of the right wing and right wing leaning information consumers.

The premise of being "post Truth" is wrong, that facts simply matter less in this first quarter of the 21st century.  This is pure bloody-mindedness combined with a childish denial of objective reality by those who don't find reality catering to their prejudices.   Put another way, the facts are not their friends. It is compounded by resentment that the 21st century requires education based knowledge and expertise, and that gut hunches and wishful thinking are insufficient for making good decision or for good governance.  An example of this would be Sarah Palin's selection and appeal as John McCain's VP choice and Betsy DeVos, the theocrat Education Secretary pick of Trump who wants God in schools, not facts or logic.  These are two women who shed only darkness on the American populace.

To be unable and unwilling to differentiate fact from ideological fiction, to believe one doesn't need to know anything of history, or art, or factual comparative religion, or geography is a weakness.  To deny objective reality is a terrible failing.  This is a facet of right wing ideology which not only dangerously exacerbates existing tensions but which endangers us all in the short, middle and especially the long term.

Rump, Obama and their respective Executive Orders and Immigration Bans. And a big thank you to the Attorneys General of WA and MN.

Anyone else remember all the right wing nut claims of executive order overreach leveled at Obama?

I can't be the only one with a clear memory, but for those who might be a bit fogged by the razzle dazzle of the overwhelming amount of bold faced lies and bullshit, I will document it for you below.

Over the weekend, the Appellate Court refused to reinstate the apparently unconstitutional Rump Immigration ban against Muslims.  Further, the Rump spokes-puppets incorrectly claimed that Obama had used a similar ban -- he didn't; and that the Rump ban was both Constitutionally and Statutorily well founded.  That doesn't appear to be true either.

It only serves to underline the rank hypocrisy and double standards applied by the right, as well as their failure to understand or accept objective reality facts.  I have long maintained that conned-servatives embrace lies (aka "alternative facts") because the real facts are not on their side. 

I've also strongly advanced the argument that conned-servatives don't properly assess or identify ACTUAL risks versus their hobby horse fears of all varieties.  The right uses fear to justify attacking our freedom, particularly those aspects of freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, without ever making us safer or better in any other way.

And here is an example of that, citing the right wing think tank the Cato Institute by way of Fact Check.org.

Only 17 of the 154 foreign-born terrorists were from the seven countries covered by the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban. But none of the 17 was responsible for any deaths — even though the seven countries combined represented almost 40 percent of all refugees accepted into the U.S. in the last 10 years.
As of Jan. 31, a total of 255,708 refugees from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen have been admitted to the U.S. since the start of 2008. Those countries account for almost 40 percent of the 642,593 total refugees who have come to the U.S. in that time period, according to the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center.
“The first sentence of his order states that it is to ‘protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States,'” Nowrasteh wrote in a blog post. “However, the countries that Trump chose to temporarily ban are not serious terrorism risks.”

Cato Institute, Sept. 13, 2016: The annual chance of being murdered was 252.9 times as great as dying in an attack committed by a foreign-born terrorist on U.S. soil.

Here is the failed right wing claims fact check from Snopes:

Executive Orders

President Obama did not issue a whopping 923 executive orders, giving the government unprecedented power to take over control of civilian institutions.

Claim: President Obama has issued a whopping 923 executive orders, many of which give the government unprecedented power to take over control of civilian institutions.

 FALSE

Example: [Collected via e-mail, September 2012]

The President signed 923 Executive Orders in 40 Months. It is all over the net. These sites include commentary on what the executive order is for and what it does. If this is the truth, I'm scared to think about it. Most of the past presidents have allegedly signed around 30 of them. At the end of the day an executive order circumvents the congress and senate. Fill in the blanks. Someone credible needs to research and report on this.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen year period.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months.
Feel free to verify the "executive orders" at will ... and these are just the major ones ...
Teddy Roosevelt: 3
Others Prior To FDR: NONE
FDR: 11 in 16 years
Truman: 5 in 7 years
Ike: 2 in 8 years
JFK: 4 in 3 years
LBJ: 4 in 5 years
Nixon: 1 in 6 years
Ford: 3 in 2 years
Carter: 3 in 4 years
Reagan: 5 in 8 years
Bush 1: 3 in 4 years
Clinton: 15 in 8 years
Bush 2: 62 in 8 years
Obama: 923 in 3+ years!
During my lifetime, all Presidents have issued Executive Orders, for reasons that vary, some more than others.
When a President issued as many as 30 Executive Orders during a term in Office, people thought there was something amiss.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT 923 EXECUTIVE ORDERS IN ONE PART OF ONE TERM?????? YES, THERE IS A REASON.
IT IS THAT THE PRESIDENT IS DETERMINED TO TAKE CONTROL AWAY FROM THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE.
Even some Democrats in the House have turned on him, plus a very small number of Democrat Senators question him.
HE SHOULD BE QUESTIONED. WHAT IS HE REALLY TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH????
DOES THIS SCARE YOU AS MUCH AS IT DOES ME?

Origin:In the United States, an executive order is a presidential policy directive that implements or interprets a federal statute, a constitutional provision, or a treaty without the requirement of congressional approval. As described by TheFreeDictionary:

The president can use [executive orders] to set policy while avoiding public debate and opposition. Presidents have used executive orders to direct a range of activities, including establishing migratory bird refuges; putting Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II; discharging civilian government employees who had been disloyal, following World War II; enlarging national forests; prohibiting racial discrimination in housing; pardoning Vietnam War draft evaders; giving federal workers the right to bargain collectively; keeping the federal workplace drug free; and sending U.S. troops to Bosnia.
Historically, executive orders [are] related to routine administrative matters and to the internal operations of federal agencies, such as amending Civil Service Rules and overseeing the administration of public lands. More recently, presidents have used executive orders to carry out legislative policies and programs. As a result, the executive order has become a critical tool in presidential policy making. For example, President John F. Kennedy used an executive order to eliminate racial discrimination in federally funded housing, President Lyndon B. Johnson acted through an executive order to prohibit discrimination in government contractors' hiring practices, and President Richard M. Nixon used an executive order to set a ninety-day freeze on all prices, rents, wages, and salaries in reaction to rising inflation and unemployment.

The item reproduced above purports that President Obama issued a whopping 923 executive orders in his first term (compared to about thirty each for previous presidents) and offers supposedly alarming provisions of some of those orders. However, the entirety of this item is erroneous.
First of all, the number of executive orders issued by President Obama is grossly exaggerated here. Through his first term (i.e., the first four years of his presidency), Barack Obama issued 147 executive orders, not 923. (Barack Obama signed a total of 275 executive orders during his two terms, averaging 35 a year; the lowest number signed since Grover Cleveland.) Moreover, compared to President Obama's predecessors in the White House, this is not an unusually large number of orders for a modern president: President George W. Bush issued 291 executive orders during his eight years in office, while President Bill Clinton issued 364 such orders over the same span of time.
The listing of numbers of executive orders issued during the terms of modern presidents included in one of the examples above also bears no resemblance to reality. This chart compares the claimed number of orders issued by each president on the list with the actual number issued, as documented by The American Presidency Project:

Name

	Number claimed:	Actual number:
Theodore Roosevelt	3	1,081
Franklin Roosevelt	11	3,522
Harry Truman	5	907
Dwight Eisenhower	2	484
John Kennedy	4	214
Lyndon Johnson	4	325
Richard Nixon	1	346
Gerald Ford	3	169
Jimmy Carter	3	320
Ronald Reagan	5	381
George H.W. Bush	3	166
Bill Clinton	15	364
George W. Bush	62	291
Barack Obama	923	147

  The attribution to President Obama of fourteen executive orders (numbered between 10990 to 11921) in the example text reproduced above is way off base as well: not a single one of those orders was issued by President Obama. The first twelve orders in the list date to the administration of President John F. Kennedy in 1962, one dates to the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, and one dates to the administration of President Gerald R. Ford in 1976.
The text of these orders can be viewed in full through the following links:

• Executive Order 10990: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 2, 1962
• Executive Order 10995: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 10997: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 10998: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 11000: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 11001: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 11002: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 11003: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 11004: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 11005: John F. Kennedy, Feb. 16, 1962
• Executive Order 11049: John F. Kennedy, Sep. 14, 1962
• Executive Order 11051: John F. Kennedy, Sep. 27, 1962
• Executive Order 11310: Lyndon B. Johnson, Oct. 11, 1966
• Executive Order 11921: Gerald R. Ford, June 11, 1976

Last updated: 28 January 2017

Because it's Friday Fun-day

Because of nothing in particular other than it pertains to Fridays....

There are only two Friday the 13ths in 2017.

Because I checked. (Ok so I had some time to kill while something was downloading with annoying slowness.)

The first Friday-the-13th was in January.

The only other one is in October.

So now you know.

It Needs to Be Said

Trump's Latest Actions that Makes Us Less Safe

There are so many ways in which not-my-president Rump is failing in his duties to the nation and to the Constitution, that it is hard to pick one, or to track the most recent.

As an aside, but interesting context to viewing the Rump Circus that is currently caricaturing actual governance, I have been reading an old Tom Clancy piece of fiction, Red Rabbit, from 2002.  Clancy has as a leitmotiv for his recurring hero, Jack Ryan, the line "wars are started by frightened men".  One could easily tweak that to read unreasonably fearful men, since it is my long held contention that conned-servatives are poor assessors of objective risk, and that they fear the wrong things for the wrong reasons.

A pair of bad actions that deserve our attention is both Rump's commitment to turn the United States into a Christian Theocracy, voiced at the recent Prayer Breakfast, which was also attended by former President Obama, and his alienation of yet another ally in his recent call to the Prime Minister of Australia. 

Both actions can reasonably be expected to make us less safe and to further agitate and empower our enemies.

As noted by Vox, which I find to be an excellent independent news source with consistent high quality analysis, Australia, like the UK and Canada, has been one of our staunchest allies, over more than 100 years.  Rump appears to have antagonized and offended PM Turnbull.

From Vox;

On his 13th day in office, President Donald Trump threatened to break an international agreement. On Twitter.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!

7:55 PM - 1 Feb 2017

• 36,530 36,530 Retweets
• 143,101

The tweet appeared to confirm a report from the Washington Post that the president, in his call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull Sunday, had berated Turnbull about an agreement made with the Obama administration — in which hundreds of refugees being held offshore in Australian detention centers are being screened for admission to the US.
The executive order Trump signed on Friday banned nearly all refugee admissions to the US for four months — but with a loophole to allow refugees to be resettled per a “preexisting international agreement.” White House press secretary Sean Spicer and the US Embassy in Australia have both explicitly promised, since the executive order was signed, that the Trump administration would honor the deal. “The president, in accordance with that deal, to honor what had been agreed upon by the United States government … will go forward,” Spicer told journalists Tuesday.
That may be news to Trump.

The president and his press secretary also appear to differ on the scope of the deal; Spicer said the US would take 1,250 refugees, which appears to refer to the number currently in offshore detention centers (not all of whom are guaranteed to pass through screening); Trump’s call with Turnbull referred to 2,000, which could be a reference to the fact that the US is also screening hundreds of refugees receiving medical care in Australia (or could just be wrong).

Taken together, it’s clear that the best-case scenario is that the new president dislikes a deal he also doesn’t understand. The worst-case scenario is that he will break it.

It is not rocket science to recognize that breaking a deal with one of our closest allies is bad. It is not rocket science that the temporary President - I can't believe he will last a full term - should not be making calls like this to a foreign leader, EITHER an ally or otherwise.  This idiot, this buffoon, clearly has no idea what he is doing or the harm that it can cause. Antagonizing our allies does not make us safer, anywhere, ever.

And it is not rocket science to recognize that promoting what is clearly Christianity influenced government to the exclusion of other faiths or no faith, as Rump did at the recent prayer breakfast, is an invitation to a further religious war with Muslim extremists, as well as alienating to our Muslim allies in Africa and Asia.

Rump personifies the insanity that we saw previously with popsie candidate Sarah Palin, the notion that people do not need to know anything to serve in any branch of government at the highest levels.

They are wrong, and now we get to see how dead wrong, as in what the death count will eventually be, because make no mistake, people will die because of this faulty poor excuse for thinking, and for this failed ideology.

Those who voted for Rump will have a great deal to answer for in the near and middle future.  The blame for this, the guilt for this is squarely theirs and theirs alone.

Trump's Plan to Defeat Isis

Donald J Trump, candidate, promised he had a plan to defeat ISIS very quickly.  When asked about details he said he wouldn't share any because "you don't broadcast what you're going to do."  That piece of nonsense allowed him to avoid answering a question which had nothing to do with strategy, after all FDR certainly made no bones about the fact we'd send troops to Europe, and everything to do with really not having an answer.

I say that because, yesterday, we all finally found out what his plan is, he PLANS to ask for a plan.  What a startling revelation!! I'm SOO glad he didn't tip his hand.  So, to sum up, his secret plan was to ask others for a secret plan

And to allow Russia to exterminate all Syrian opposition to the Assad government, ISIS, democratic groups, women, kids.  The rest of his "secret" plan, outside the 'not having a plan part', is to allow a brutal regime to engage in genocide.  Gosh, I'm so glad we're "winning" so much we get tired of winning.  Great Plan, Donald.  I'm HUGELY impressed and I'm tired of winning this way, so feel free to get some adult to make you an actual plan for how to govern.

Happy Chinese New Year!

I love to laugh at the crazy right wingers who insist that NOW that Rump is their temporary president, the other nations of the world are going to 'respect us' (by which they appear to mean fear us).

Yeah.

Not so much.  In fact these morons from the conned-servative ideology cannot name one country or subset of a region that now respects us more.

In the spirit of Chinese New Year, appropriately enough the year of the Rooster, behold the level of mockery with which the conned-servative temporary president is regarded:




Maybe it is just me, but that looks nothing to me like respect.  Rather to me it screams contempt for Rump.

From CNN:

A giant rooster sculpture, sporting the President-elect's signature hairdo and hand gestures, has been erected outside a shopping mall in Taiyuan, in China's northern Shanxi Province.

The sculpture was commissioned by the company that owns the mall and will be its mascot, Cao Mingliang, the deputy director of planning department from N1 ArtWalk Mall, told CNN.

Cao said a series of products and smaller replicas will be available for sale in the future, though some are already being sold on Taobao, the Chinese e-commerce giant owned by Alibaba.

Wei Qing, whose Shenghe Yangtai Business is selling replica roosters, told CNN he thought sculpture was hilarious.

"I think the rooster is very cute and funny, the hairstyle and eyebrows look very much like Donald Trump. I'm sure it will attract a lot of customers," he said.

At least four stores are selling the Trump rooster, with prices starting from $57 to a whopping $1,739 for a statue that's 32 feet tall.

This isn't even the first avian doppleganger Trump has had in China this year.

State-run People's Daily tweeted out an image of a bird sporting a similar hairdo to the President-elect last month.
Trump-related products and gag gifts have proliferated since the real estate mogul announced his candidacy for president.

Rump is a gag gift, a punchline to a colossal joke, President Angry Bird brain. They won't just be eating our nation for lunch in China, they will be eating Rump for lunch. Big negotiator, baloney. Chicken baloney.

The end is near......in a matter of speaking I'm embarrassed by the MN GOP, again

Behold the right in all their glory, from Rump, our temporary president on down the food chain to the despicable MN GOP.

From the latest Wonkette piece on the MN GOP passing health care 'reform' legislation

"Minnesota Republicans Pass Health Insurance ‘Reform’ That Doesn’t Cover Any Actual Medical Stuff"

You betcha: If this thing went into effect, you could buy health insurance in Minnesota that excluded coverage for costly stuff you don’t need. Like diagnostic tests or cancer treatment. Or Emergency services. Or much of anything. In essence, it would allow a return to the good old days of “Junk Insurance” policies that had low premiums, low deductibles, and didn’t cover hardly anything. But they were inexpensive, and by golly, those were the policies you couldn’t keep when Obamacare went into effect. And it’s a preview of the glories of keeping costs down by allowing people to buy insurance policies across state lines — if the bare-bones coverage that this Minnesota bill would provide still cost too much, you could go buy your insurance in some state that doesn’t require insurance policies to cover, say, “doctor visits.” Just think how much you’d save on insurance, unless of course you actually needed insurance!
It’s unclear whether the bill would pass the state Senate, where Republicans only have a one-seat majority, and it would certainly be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, who just had his own health scare yesterday — he passed out while giving his state of the state address, and while he’s back at work today, he revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last week. Oh, look at item 22 on the list of things insurance companies wouldn’t have to cover: “Prostate cancer screenings.”

I am assuming the model for this graphic is not temporary president Rump,
because while the overall size and shape are about right, the skin tones are not orange enough
unless, like so many other things, he's only concerned with what shows...

I used to believe, and still do occasionally, that the Republicans were simply clueless as to how to govern.  But they know; they just don't want to do it.

It might be more fundamental, that they don't grasp the proper role of government, which would explain why they keep trying to privatize everything.
But bottom line -- pun intended on the photo -- the right exists to redistribute wealth to the wealthy from the less wealthy, in whatever form they can devise, and the hell with the average citizen or the middle class. Like the soup nazi from friends, if I might slightly paraphrase -- NONE FOR YOU.No medical care. No education. No roads. No libraries. No voting.  No post office. No retirement. No safe and clean environment. No safe drinking water. No food or shelter for the poor.

There is no end to what the right wants to......end, except when it comes to corporate welfare and big bonuses and salaries for the obscenely rich.  Well.........maybe there is one naked end.......goal, that is.

Resistance is not futile. This is what winning looks like.

Beginning with the anti-Trump protests in New York City and Los Angeles:

New York above, LA below"

And representing the middle of the country, protests in Chicago. But don't let us pretend that the only protests were in the largest cities. They were everywhere. But for the sake of brevity I am posting the biggest ones.  And one really really small but significant one too.

Antarctic protest
We stand together in the USA against Trump
We stand together around the world as well.

The Trump Inaugural Route
unprecedented, unpresidentedly empty

Women's March on Washington

This is the swamp being repopulated with worse bad actors.

For those who do nor recognize the Rump nominees by sight, they are the people currently being vetted by Congress without first filing their ethics paperwork, so that they cannot be asked about conflicts of interest.
And since I don't see former Texas Governor Rick Perry, all round dumbass, in the above photo, here is another graphic to illustrate how utterly unqualified are those "best People" with which Rump promised to surround himself.



And for those who don't get this joke, Betsy DeVos, whom Senator Al Franken took to the woodshed in her confirmation hearings, believes we need guns in schools to protect children from bear attacks. Of which we have none on record, with or without guns in schools.

We are fortunate to have Sen. Franken working for us in Washington DC

DeVos, Rump's pick for Sec of Education, has in these hearings stated that there is a need for guns in schools to defend children from grizzly bears, and has stated her purpose in education is to build the Kingdom of God in public schools. That is among her many other failings that have been revealed in these hearings.

She has also admitted that she has not merely given money to Republicans and conservative causes, but that she has done so to purchase influence.  I would hardly characterize this as "draining the swamp".

This should be completely unacceptable. There is ZERO evidence that DeVos appreciates sexual orientation is innate, and she has further stated that it is "premature" to keep LGBT students safe from rape, per the guidelines that after serious examination, were set up for educational entities, and which have worked successfully to reduce assaults and harassment.

This woman, like Trump's other nominees, is utterly unqualified and unsuitable to the position for which she is nominated.

Conned-servatives, Pixie Dust and Unicorn Poop - the issue of Health Care and Government Funding

References to unicorn droppings seems to be a frequent euphemism for unrealistic expectations or ludicrous political promises in the UK.  I have become a big fan of the phrase while reading comments at the BBC web site on a range of topics, including in particular Brexit promises from the right relating to funding the UK National Health Services.

(An aside, gentle readers; be prepared for the unexpected should you choose to google the term Unicorn Poop.)

Similarly we might as well get out the shovels for the unicorn poop when it comes to Donald Rump and his promises of health care and health insurance for everyone, better and cheaper and serving more people than what was provided under the ACA  aka Obamacare.

A recent poll from the Pew Research Fact Tank shows that a sharply increasing number of Americans, including the Conned-servatives who vote Republican, NOW believe that the federal government should ensure Health Care Coverage!  As with the change in public opinion, which the right tends to consistently lag, this reflects a similarly dramatic change which in some respects parallels the shift in public opinion relating to the LGBT community and how they should be treated fairly.  In that regard the shift is both unexpectedly rapid, and likely to be reflected in demands for legislative changes.  This is a dramatic change that the political right would be wise to follow; however they appear hell bent on the opposite.  That doesn't bode well. 

More Americans say government should ensure health care coverage

As the debate continues over repeal of the Affordable Care Act and what might replace it, a growing share of Americans believe that the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Currently, 60% of Americans say the government should be responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, compared with 38% who say this should not be the government’s responsibility.

Just as there are wide differences between Republicans and Democrats about the 2010 health care law, the survey also finds partisan differences in views on whether it’s the government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. More than eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (85%) say the federal government should be responsible for health care coverage, compared with just 32% of Republicans and Republican leaners. 

...The survey also finds continued differences on this question by race and ethnicity as well as income. A large majority of blacks and Hispanics (85% and 84%, respectively) say the government should be responsible for coverage, while non-Hispanic whites are split on the issue (49% agree, 49% disagree). And while about three-quarters of those with family incomes of less than $30,000 per year (74%) say the government should ensure coverage, only about half (53%) of those with incomes of $75,000 or higher say the same.

Currently, 52% of Republicans with family incomes below $30,000 say the federal government has a responsibility to ensure health coverage for all, up from just 31% last year. There also has been a 20-percentage-point increase among Republicans with incomes of $30,000-$74,999 (34% now, 14% last year). But there has been no significant change among those with incomes of $75,000 or more (18% now, 16% then).

Those who think government should ensure health coverage for all are divided on a follow-up question about whether health insurance should be provided through a mix of private insurance companies and the government (29% of the overall public), or if the government alone should provide insurance (28% of the public).

...Most of those on the other side of the issue – people who say the government does not have a responsibility to ensure health coverage – say on a subsequent question that the government should continue Medicare and Medicaid (32% of the overall public), while just 5% of the public says the government should have no role in health care.

Among Republicans and Republican leaners, most of whom (67%) say the government does not have a responsibility for ensuring health coverage, there is very little support for the government not being involved in health care at all. Just 10% of Republicans favor no government involvement, while 56% say it should continue Medicare and Medicaid.

While Republicans in Congress have already taken the first steps toward repealing the ACA, Americans remain largely divided on what Congress should do with the health care law. Overall, in a Pew Research Center survey in December, 39% said it should be repealed, while an equal share (39%) said the law should be expanded. Just 15% of Americans said the law should be left as is. Although the public is divided on the future of the law, there is bipartisan support for a number of ACA provisions.

It is dispiriting that there are still so many people, particularly among the conned-servatives, who do not know the ACA / Affordable Care Act IS THE SAME THING as Obamacare.  That we should be assured these people were wiser than the rest of us when they elected Don the Con (T)Rump to office or pretty much ANY of the GOP is ludicrous.

Continuing his con, his direct and ludicrous lies, that any human being either over the age of 4 or with an IQ higher in equivalence than a 4 year old would recognize as impossible BS.  Or should I say US2, for United States of Unicorn Scat?

The current crop of Republicans either don't know or don't care, or more likely don't care enough to want to know, what Americans really want from them and from government.  The next election is coming up fast in 2018, and this looks to be a hot issue, one that will likely fracture support for Republicans and Conservatives.  The next presidential election will be in 2020, the same year that the Census mandated by the constitution will raise the issue of gerrymandering and redistricting.

If the right continues to ignore what "we the people" really really want, to borrow a blast from the past phrase from the Spice Girls,  I think we can realistically hope for some change in those elections, and be confident that the interim not-valid president Rump will provide nothing but unicorn poop and rubbish promises.

I've said it before and I will say it again here now; Republicans do not govern well, and do not correctly grasp the proper function and role of government.

It is spelled CONFLICT OF INTEREST

It's Martin Luther King Day, and John Lewis has it right!

A young John Lewis, arrested 41 times for protesting Jim Crow,
with his non-violent civil rights protests

Back in the late 1950s and through the 1960's John Lewis fought for civil rights.  He was a non-violent protester who was severely injured during peaceful protests.

As a result of those peaceful protests, civil rights legislation was passed, and became law with the signature of then-president Lyndon Johnson.  Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the conservatives have worked tirelessly to bring back Jim Crow and to undo the provisions that guaranteed voting rights.

This is the shame, the stain, on conservatives and on our history that we let them get away with doing it.  No one understands that better than now-Congressman John Lewis.  Throughout the south, and in places other than the deep south which have Republicans in control of state legislatures we see voter suppression taking root.  This has been reflected in the decreasing voter participation.

I would argue that the lower the voter participation, the less legitimate, the less valid is any government of the people, by the people, or for the people.  To selectively take away the right to vote is not only a racial attack, it is an attack on the very premise of our nation, representative government, by limiting government representation as much as possible to conservative white people.

Nothing could be more in opposition to John Lewis, or to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When we have a racist drug policy that disproportionately makes felons of minorities for what were previously not felony crimes, not only imprisoning them in largely for-profit jails which steal their labor for pennies an hour -- sometimes as little as 8 cents an hour.  This is Jim Crow all over again.  To further deny these minorities the restoration of their voting rights has further shifted the participation in voting to white voters, and been part of the rise of white supremacy again in the south.

If anyone doubts that there is still an unrepentant population of white bigots in the US, we have only to look at the polling on those who desire to bring back anti-miscegenation laws which would again prevent intermarrying between people of different "racial" backgrounds.  This reflects not only a desire for racial purity that is synonymous with white supremacy, but also a completely false understanding by ignorant conservatives of race and the characteristics associated with that false understanding of race.

Make no mistake, Trump is himself a racist, and so are those who support him, or at the very least his supporters are tolerant of racism.

Because it is funny

You can't make up this stuff. From If You Only News:

The Company Supplying Portable Toilets To Inauguration Is Called ‘Don’s Johns’ And People Are DYING

Just a few days after news broke that the Russians may or may not have secretly filmed Donald Trump enjoying a urination fetish with Russian prostitutes, inauguration organizers realized to their horror that attendees will have an abundance of giant reminders of that scandal dotted around the capital during the event.
Don’s Johns bills itself as the “the Washington area’s top provider of portable toilet rentals” but it’s name is just a smidge to close to the “Don” about to be sworn in to office. According to the Associated Press, organizers have begun frantically covering up the names on the port-a-potty units in order to avoid the embarrassment.

It’s the great port-a-potty cover-up for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Workers preparing for the inauguration Jan. 20 have taped over the name of the company — “Don’s Johns” — that has long supplied portable restrooms for major outdoor events in the nation’s capital.
Virginia-based Don’s Johns calls itself the Washington area’s top provider of portable toilet rentals. But the name apparently strikes too close to home for inaugural organizers.
Workers have placed blue tape over the company name on dozens of portable restrooms installed near the Capitol for the inauguration.
Hilariously, the blue tape doesn’t really work. You can still see the name underneath.

For many internet users, news that Trump’s team was panicking about being compared to a literal box filled with pee was almost too much to handle.

Friday Fun Day: Schadenfreude Edition

Donald Trump, the man elected by fools "to drain the swamp" has been at the center of too many CREDIBLE scandals post-election in addition to his rapacious appointments/cabinet picks.

And THAT is coming home to roost, sometimes in humorous ways.

While Trump is expending apparently an unprecedented amount of tax payer dollars on his gaudy but tacky inauguration, it is an ongoing thorn in his "not my president" side that major performers, both in the US and outside the US (notably from the UK), have refused Trump.

He has already demeaned the prestige of the office; I cannot recall, before, in my lifetime a performer declining to perform for an incoming president at such a previously important national event.  I do not fault the performers for refusing Trump; he is even more deplorable than the deplorables who voted him into office in a record low voter turnout election.  That low voter turn out above and beyond the polarized low information voters who turned out for Trump make him a less legitimate president.  It is not the candidates, contrary to some pundits claims who are responsible for that low turnout, it is the right wing efforts at voter suppression coming to fruition.

So here is the morning's Schadenfreude for your amusement.  A poseur band performing for a poseur president; all hail mediocrity and Rump.

From the Rolling Stone:

Bruce Springsteen Cover Band Defends Donald Trump Inauguration Party

"It's got nothing to do with politics whatsoever," says the B-Street Band's Will Forte. "It's really just a New Jersey party" "I've been beaten down. I haven't slept. I've been up all night," says Will Forte, the founder of popular Bruce Springsteen cover group the B-Street Band. The 63-year-old musician tells Rolling Stone that when news broke that his band would play a Donald Trump inauguration party this month, he received a flood of emails excoriating the group.
"We kind of fell into this and never saw it coming," he adds. "I'm only a small fry. I like publicity, but I didn't want this kind of publicity. The last time we had this much publicity is when we almost played the Craigslist Killer's wedding up in Boston."

This is the first I heard of it that the Craigslist Killer had a fiance. I suspect that as much as she (I assume it is she but could be he) was as distressed by their choice of mate as Rump voters are going to be by their choice in president. While not a murderer (that we know of), Rump may very well be a criminal of the rich sort that gets away with his crimes, up until the issue of high crimes and misdemeanors brings him crashing down.

Even conservative artists have bailed on any association with Rump.  Not to mention Trump's bad track record of paying people being a presumed consideration.  Being a deadbeat employer is just one of the many failings coming back to haunt him.  I predict this is a taste of abandonment by the right yet to come, but coming soon.

Also from Rolling Stone:

Why Even Trump-Friendly Artists Won't Perform at His Inauguration

Afraid of media circus, musicians are steering clear of president's swearing in, according to music managers.

Weeks before Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, the subject of securing performances has been contentious. Last night, the president-elect weighed in on the debacle (on Twitter, naturally), saying in his inimitable way that he didn't need "so-called 'A' list celebrities." "I want the PEOPLE!" he tweeted. But according to top music managers, Trump's team has been hustling to secure a high calibre of talent and star-power for the event nonetheless.

"We've gotten calls that almost sound a little bit desperate: 'Does anybody want to perform?'" says Ken Levitan, a top music manager who represents liberal and conservative artists including Kings of Leon, Hank Williams Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd and Emmylou Harris. "At this point, we haven't had anybody that has any desire to perform at the inauguration.

"Even if you're a Trump supporter, you've got to look at how he plays the media [and] the public, in terms of how he attacks and twists things around. I've got to think there's a fear of talking about things and working with him," Levitan continues. "I do know some of the very conservative [artists] have no desire to do it. ... [They] just don't want to be involved in the circus — it's a media circus, and not necessarily in a good way."
Elton John, Garth Brooks and Celine Dion have reportedly turned down offers.

And in MORE Schadenfreude news, there are only 200 buses that have applied for bus parking during the inaugural on January 20th; for the Women's March on the 21st (not, of course, limited to women participants) has in contrast, applied for 1,200 bus parking permits; the parking location for such events holds a maximum of 1,300 buses.

Mr. Rump, the people appear to be catching on to you, and that doesn't look good.

It's only Thursday, but it's a fun day too

My favorite in the fallout from Goldenshowergate so far:

John Fugelsang

I didn't think #GoldenShowerGate could get any funnier and then Trump accused Buzzfeed of yellow journalism.

MN GOP -- the party that wants to get into your bed room, bathroom, locker room and your pants

While they like to give lip service to being the party of small government, and moan and groan about government over-reach ad nauseum, the GOP is the worst offender for unwarranted intrusion into the lives of citizens minding their own business.  The right is obsessed with controlling our sexual and gender identity, sexual orientation, and reproductive choices, attempting to variously criminalize those decisions, or to make them for us.  These are things which largely cannot be legislated, as gender and sexuality, and individual body autonomy are intrinsic and inherent parts of each human being.

It should be an accepted premise of government that any legislation that interferes with the free will and action of citizens should serve a demonstrated NEED for such legislation.  In the case of the transgender and bathrooms, there have been more instances of Republican politicians arrested for sexual misconduct in bathrooms than there have been documented incidents, much less arrests or convictions, of transgender persons behaving inappropriately or illegally.  One of those GOP pols, Larry Craig, was arrested right here in Minnesota, at the International Airport.

As noted by the Intellectualist:

According to Media Matters, there haven’t … been any reports of men ‘pretending’ to be transgender to gain access to women’s spaces and commit crimes against them. You know who have been arrested in public bathrooms for sexual misconduct?Republican politicians.
Without even diving too deep, we found three GOP legislators who were picked up for lavatory indiscretions.
Their names: Larry Craig ..., Jon Hinson, and Bob Allen.

We may need laws against GOP politicians using public bathrooms. By contrast, trans people are doing just fine.

It has long been my contention that not only are a number of conned-servatives are controlling, authoritarian hypocrites, but also that many are bigots, (bigotry being defined as "sincerely" believing broadly denigrating and factually false things about a broad group of people in order to in some way demean or discriminate against them). In the case of transgender people, American or otherwise, it is a fact that there have been more Republican members of Congress arrested for illegal sexual conduct in public bathrooms than there have been arrests of transgender people for either sexual assault or sexual harassment, both of which are the justification for transgender bathroom bill legislation.

The most recent example of that is HB 41, a bill introduce by three of the most consistently stupid members of the state legislature since the super star of MN lege stupid, Michele Bachmann, moved on to a larger public platform for embarrassment. Her most recent public embarrassment was the lie that President Obama had extorted foreign governments to walk in gay pride parades.  Because you can't make up stupid, especially dishonest stupid, the way Michele Bachmann can.  Sadly all too often, when the facts are not on the side of conservatives, like Bachmann, like the authors of HB 41, they just make up stuff; worse they come to believe their lies.

From lgbtqnation:

Former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann appeared on the Family Research Council‘s “Washington Watch” radio program late last week to discuss the incoming Trump Administration.
In her appearance, which was captured by RightWingWatch, she denounced the State Department for forcing foreign government ministers to march in gay pride parades. It is unclear what she is referring to.

Financial incentives are withheld from countries unless they advance, for instance, the gay agenda. In a country that doesn’t believe in the gay agenda, the Obama State Department has said, “Look, you have to have a Gay Pride parade. You have to make sure that you can show us that ministers are marching in this Gay Pride parade.” What? The US government is telling another government, “You have to have Gay Pride parades”? That’s unbelievable! “You won’t get your PEPFAR money, you won’t get your USAID money, unless you follow our radical social agenda”?

HB 41 is the latest effort at a bathroom bill, a bill to make life more of a living hell for transgender students.

From OnTop magazine:

Three Republican members of the Minnesota House have introduced a bill that targets transgender students.

The Student Physical Privacy Act (HF 41) seeks to “protect and provide for the privacy and safety of all students enrolled in public schools and to maintain order and dignity in restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, showers, and other facilities where students may be in various states of undress in the presence of other students.”

It defines “sex” to mean “the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined by a person's chromosomes and is identified at birth by a person's anatomy.” The bill would designate restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms and shower rooms for the “exclusive use by students of the male sex only or by the students of the female sex only.”

The bill's authors are Representatives Duanne Quam of Byron, Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa and Eric Lucero of Dayton.

Introduced on Thursday, the proposed legislation has been referred to the Education Innovation Policy committee.

Reince Priebus on Face the Nation: Failure

On Sunday, January 8th, Reince Priebus apppeared on Face the Nation, an interview which included the statement that we have 25 million uninsured people in the United States.  He further posited that this represented a failure of Obamacare to cover every person. He kept calling Obamacare a failure.

It is in fact a success, a success that is, or was, growing.

I would argue this was a bold faced evil intentioned lie.

The reality is that under Republicans prior to the Democratic sweep of the Senate and White House, there was ZERO effort on the part of Republicans to address health care issues, other than to find new ways to enact wealth redistribution to the wealthy, both corporate and individuals, the life and health of average Americans be damned.

Number of serious or new replacement ideas from the GOP? ZERO.

Number of uninsured Americans the GOP sought to provide health care or insurance coverage? ZERO

THAT is failure. And they are continuing that failure, not learning from it or improving on it.

It was not an exaggeration when then-Congressman Alan Grayson back in 2009 referred to the Republican plan for health care, as "Die. Die Quickly.".